Leverage

LeverageHow to get good use out of

your items in your repository

What Can We Do With What We’ve Got?

• “Instead of building newer and larger weapons of mass destruction, I think mankind should try to get more use out of the ones we have”– Jack Handy

AGENDA1. What does a repository do with my stuff?2. How does that help me?3. What can I do with my stuff?4. What is RSS?5. What can I do with it?

AGENDA1. What does a repository do with my stuff?2. How does that help me?3. What can I do with my stuff?4. What is RSS?5. What can I do with it?

So Far, So Good

• You’ve deposited your papers and lecture notes into your institution’s repository. – Behind the scenes everything’s going to be looked

after… all the backups, and the hardware replacements, and preservation.

– Google and Google Scholar and Yahoo and Microsoft Live are indexing your research

– People are discovering and reading your content

The Repository has made a splash page, with previews and usage stats

Example from EPrints at University of Southampton, UKExample from EPrints at University of Southampton, UK

The repository has made a bibliography for you …

Example from DSpace at Universiteit Hasselt, BelgiumExample from DSpace at Universiteit Hasselt, Belgium

…maybe personalised it with other information about you…

Example from DSpace at University of Chicago, IllinoisExample from DSpace at University of Chicago, Illinois

…set up a mailing list for you…

Example from Digital Commons at Cal PolyExample from Digital Commons at Cal Poly

…made different views of your work…

Example from EPrints at University of Southampton, UKExample from EPrints at University of Southampton, UK

Example from IAM web site at University of Southampton, UKExample from IAM web site at University of Southampton, UK

Automatically updated your research group web pages

Less Administration

• Management will use the information for the admin forms you would otherwise have to complete

✗ ✓Kingston University used their repository to help in the UK RAEKingston University used their repository to help in the UK RAE

Now What?

• But what happens now?– what can you do with your papers– besides look at them and wait for them to accrue

citations

• You keep writing papers and lectures– You keep on depositing them in the repository

• How can you take advantage of them once they are there?

Tell Your Community About Your Work

Share your report with your Facebook community, or with your colleagues on email. Facebook will be able to pick up the title, abstract and choice of thumbnail.

Example from Texas A&M Repository, USAExample from Texas A&M Repository, USA

Tell Your Community About Your Work

Your repository might include a direct link to allow you (or anyone) to share your items directly with a number of Web2.0 services.

Example from EPrints Student Portfolio at University of Southampton, UK

Example from EPrints Student Portfolio at University of Southampton, UK

Update your Teaching Pages

The HTML for these boxes are created by the teaching repository for me to embed into my lecture page

• Having an attractive summary of the lecture notes that links to the slides stored in the repository makes it much easier to create and manage course pages

• The repository provides the HTML that I need to embed in my web page. Just like YouTube!

This example comes from the JISC EdSpace projectThis example comes from the JISC EdSpace project

My Growing Collection

• The repository is keeping track of all the new items that are added– a special web format called RSS provides updates

with the latest items to readers (and services)• You can get an RSS feed of the latest work

from– your whole repository– or a specific collection or author, or research

group, or topic

RSS Feeds

RSS is a way for information displayed in a multimedia web page to be communicated across the web as a list of time-stamped items.

While the stories are in list form, they can be filtered or processed in lots of ways.

The list of items (aka RSS feed) can be displayed as a table of contents, as a summary, or in bespoke browser interface or ‘widget’.

Widgets

Collection of repository items (articles, lectures, artwork etc) that you see as an HTML page are exported across the web as an RSS feed.

RSS feed:•item 1,•item 2,•item 3…

A widgetmaker web site lets you design and create a widget using an RSS feed of your choice.

Widgets (or gadgets) are visual components for a web page. Some are useful, some are clever, some are just pretty.

This widget makes a 3D gallery display from the previews of each item in my “latest publications” feed

Using Widgets on Your Site

The widget site stores your design and gives you some HTML to copy and paste into your web page to invoke the widget.

RSS feed:•item 1,•item 2,•item 3…

<object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,0,0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="400px" height="331px" id="kickWidget_66545_20449" align="middle"><param name="movie" value="http://serve.a-widget.com/kickapps/service/getWidgetSwf.kickAction"/><param name="FlashVars" value="affiliateSiteId=66545&amp;widgetId=20449&amp;width=400&amp;height=331"/><param name="quality" value="high"/><param name="wmode" value="transparent"/><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/><param name="menu" value="false"/><param name="allowNetworking" value="all"/><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"/><embed src="http://serve.a-widget.com/kickapps/service/getWidgetSwf.kickAction”

<object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,0,0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="400px" height="331px" id="kickWidget_66545_20449" align="middle"><param name="movie" value="http://serve.a-widget.com/kickapps/service/getWidgetSwf.kickAction"/><param name="FlashVars" value="affiliateSiteId=66545&amp;widgetId=20449&amp;width=400&amp;height=331"/><param name="quality" value="high"/><param name="wmode" value="transparent"/><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/><param name="menu" value="false"/><param name="allowNetworking" value="all"/><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"/><embed src="http://serve.a-widget.com/kickapps/service/getWidgetSwf.kickAction”

Spruce up your own home page with a widget from widgetbox.com

My recent papers from a research repository RSS feed

Note the use of document thumbnails.

This widget was created for me by widgetbox.com using a repository feed that delivers my recent publications. I just had to paste the HTML it made into my Web page.This widget was created for me by widgetbox.com using a repository feed that delivers my recent publications. I just had to paste the HTML it made into my Web page.

…or one from KickApps.com…

Recent analyses from a data repository RSS feed

Note the use of chemical structure thumbnails.

Just because a subject is scientific or technical doesn’t mean that a visual representation of its data can’t promote better communication.

Just because a subject is scientific or technical doesn’t mean that a visual representation of its data can’t promote better communication.

Create a pagecast at PageFlakes.com

My recent papers from the research repository RSS feed

My recent lectures from the teaching repository RSS feed

Recent blog entries from my students’ RSS feed

My school’s latest news items RSS feed

A brief bio and flattering photo

the only bit that I had to write!

Create a timeline at dipity.com

My recent papers from the same research repository feed as before. Same data, new visualisation. Here, the datestamp from each article is used to place it on the timeline.

or a calendar at 30boxes.com

Recent deposits from the KULTUR project art repository RSS feed. Once again, the datestamp from each article is used to place it on the calendar. Thumbnails optional.

Display your collection on an image wall at cooliris.com

These images come from the KULTUR project art repository RSS feed. You can see them in a widget, or a special browser.

…it’s useful for viewing large collections of visual material

The image wall also works well with thumbnail images of posters from a research repository.

Summary

• Putting something in a repository isn’t a dead-end.

• There’s lots of things you can do with items in repositories– Scholarly communication– Promotion & Marketing

• A repository adds value to your research outputs– Better in than out!

Caveat

• No single repository will support all of these features shown in this presentation– Yet

• But none of these features here are beyond the capabilities of most repositories– not much technical effort is required to make

them work